Killing Spree, We Hardly Knew Ye
October 3, 2008
So we’re in the middle of recording ChaosCast tonight when Keen is talking about how the 1.01 patch nerfed AOE XP farming — apparently it was all bad and stuff, although that was outside of my direct observation for the most part. That triggered a little light bulb in my head and I went, “Hey, whatever happened to Killing Spree?”
Yeah! Hey! What happened to it?
If you may recall, Killing Spree started if you or your group if you killed an initial mob quickly enough (although it was primarily designed to be a group mechanic, not as easy for solo players to initiate). Once started, you and your party would get a +5% bonus to killing XP and have a timer (~10 seconds or so) to kill another mob and go to the next stage of the killing spree, or else have the spree end entirely. You could eventually work your way up to stage 4 (+20% XP) within four mob kills.
The problem here was that while Killing Spree was a great idea — as most people will attest — it allowed players to exploit it with nearly non-stop AOE grinding at the +20% XP rate. There were also reports of it being bugged. In any case, Killing Spree was taken out of the game a day after launch, and we haven’t seen it since.
So right now we’re seeing Mythic toying with how to fix AOE grinding (an Overkill mechanic was briefly in the game, but now it looks like it was taken out) and how to fit Killing Spree back in the game without it breaking anything, like my sanity. Perhaps we’ll never see it again — but that would be a shame, I think.
Waaagh! A Warhammer Online Blog 
Killing Spree is a wonderful idea and made me feel the “blood lust” in the game. I do miss it, but I’m fine not having it if people are going to exploit it. I am actually fine w/ it starting at say a 2% xp increase and going up to a max of 8% or 10%. 20% did seem a bit high IMHO. But if a cap called “Genocide” was put in place where you killed too many too fast and you lost the killing spree bonus, I think that would be an easy fix.
Just considering the number of people who may not have the means to get a well set group to grind/farm with makes any sort of Killing Spree bonus idea…a bad idea. Unless you give quest exp a big boost for those who like to solo.
I already think solo questing is a great way to exp, but I think its currently well balanced with PQ grinding.
The only change I would make to the exp system is…..more exp for RvR. I like the amount of exp I get from RvR scenarios, but it pales in comparison to the exp I get from grinding or questing, and Im usually in the top half for exp at the end of the scenario. (top 5 if we actually win)
So you mean to tell me NO ONE did this in beta and they just now figured this out? Lame
Syp, you’re killing me. Perpetuation of misinformation, and all that.
Triggering a killing spree never had anything to do with how quickly you killed mobs. It’s simple: you or your group kill a mob that is at least 1 level higher than you, your killing spree advances. You then have a decreasing amount of time, depending on the level of your killing spree, to kill another mob at least 1 level higher than you.
That’s it. Killing quickly, although implied by the name ‘spree’, has never figured into starting or advancing a killing spree. Kill one mob in 10 minutes, and as long as it’s +1, your killing spree will advance to stage 1.
This is the way it worked all through beta, and the way it worked during its brief live stint.
It was also perfectly easy to do solo, although sustaining the 20% was pretty tough, and usually required some soft +1 targets. Usually while solo I would get it up to 20%, then knowing the time limit at level 4 was too small for me to pull and kill another mob, I would use the time to reposition myself in the camp near fresh targets and start it over.
[…] via RvR… Syp over at WAAAGH! has posted a https://waaagh.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/killing-spree-we-hardly-knew-ye/ rgarding bonus exp which brought up a thought for yours […]